Epson BrightLink 485Wi Interactive LCD Projector Review

April 22, 2012 - Lisa Feierman

Epson BrightLink 485Wi Projector - Brightness

The Epson BrightLink 485Wi was a strong performer in the area of brightness. Its uniformity was also consistent with very little variation in brightness from a visual perspective. Measuring brightness with ultra short throw projectors can be difficult. What seemed to produce the most accurate results was to lay the meter against the screen just like one would do for any other projector. For the sake of this report the meter was laid against the screen and not angled towards the lens. The projectors lens was about 18 inches from the screen. Epson claims 3100 lumens of light output both for white light and color.

The 485Wi has two brightness modes. It features Normal Mode which produces the highest brightness across all the color modes and ECO mode which in doing the meter tests seems to have dropped brightness by close to half. The image however was still quite bright and vibrant.

First I will start with how the projector performed in Normal Mode across all the color modes. In Presentation Mode, the projector produced 2644 lumens. In Theater Mode, the brightness dropped a bit bit to 2322, but that is still very bright. The image tended to shift to a darker shade. Usually this is to make the contrast ratio higher and create a blacker black. Photo Mode dropped the brightness just slightly to 2231 so that was a hardly noticeable change from Theater Mode. Srgb Mode was a strong performer at 1986 and Whiteboard Mode and Dynamic Mode came in at 2322 and 3354 respectively. The Dynamic mode really seemed to pour on the brightness and from a meter reading standpoint exceeded the manufacturers specifications.

ECO mode surprisingly dropped the brightness of the projector by about half. Presentation Mode with the projector set to ECO came in at 1548 lumens. In the projector’s Theater Mode, it produced 1225 lumens. When switching to Photo Mode, the projector emitted 1122 lumens and in Srgb Mode, the 485Wi was able to project 1032. Blackboard Mode and Whiteboard Mode produced 903 and 1161 lumens respectively. Last but not least, the Dynamic Mode with ECO set on the projector produced 1767 lumens of light output. Some really strong readings overall.

I should note that Epson advertises that the projector is capable of the 3100 lumens not just for white light output but for color as well. I was not able to test this claim with my available equipment so I can not honestly report on it. I can say that when projecting large images of just primary colors, the picture was bright and vibrant.

Epson BrightLink 485Wi Projector - Audible Noise

When evaluating the projectors audible noise I often look for how many times I noticed the projector working while I am taking notes. The specs show that in the projector’s Normal Mode, it produces 35dB and in ECO Mode you can expect 28dB. The projector in no way was distracting in either mode and it was virtually silent in ECO Mode.